Donghyuck clearly remembers the day Jaehyun had entered the main lobby and announced to them that he wanted someone to join him on his day out in New York. After multiple people yelling and shouting, Mark had jumped out from behind the crowd and thrown himself over Jaehyun, talking about how he would be the best person to go out with (and after the trip Jaehyun agreed with that statement). Donghyuck also remembers how Doyoung had entered the room, his eyes narrow and full of wonder. He looked around the room, eyeing everyone before asking Jungwoo to accompany him — he said he was the most mature one out of them all and to some extent, the others couldn't disagree with that. 

He also remembers the way Jungwoo had waltzed into the room, a determined expression on his face as he ignored Doyoung's outstretched hand and picked Johnny. They both shared a strange smile between them two and no one bothered asking them what it meant. 

But then when it came to Donghyuck's turn, and he awkwardly shuffled into the room, a piece of paper which included the name of the place they were going to ("arb-arboto-arbor— you know what, I'll just let hyung say the name"), he glanced around the room and tried to push down the pain he felt when they all groaned. He knew it was probably because none of them wanted to hang out with him — it's okay, it's perfectly okay — but he tried to fool himself into thinking it's just because they're tired. It's not because of him. 

A whole ten minutes of silence passed before Donghyuck mentioned his trip. Everyone in the room froze for a few seconds, probably grimacing over the fact that Donghyuck had finally mentioned it and now they had to pick between them all. But before anyone could say anything, Mark jumped up from the ground, brushing off imaginary dirt before smiling at Donghyuck.

"I'll come with you," He said and immediately left the room. Donghyuck stood his ground, shocked that out of all the people who had volunteered to go with him, it was Mark. He was more confused than shocked, as shown by his wide eyes and raised eyebrows, but he was also happy. Although Donghyuck had avoided Mark for the longest time now, and he was probably the cause of Donghyuck's inner annoyance and frustration, he was the one that Donghyuck wanted to see the most. It was strange but Donghyuck felt more angry seeing Mark cuddle with Jungwoo rather than seeing Taeil jump onto Johnny. 

"So where are we going?" Mark asked, snapping Donghyuck out of his little daydream and then gestured towards the camera pointed towards them. (Was he only doing this because of the fans?) 

"I don't really know," Donghyuck said slowly, glancing over to the manager and smiling at the way he facepalmed, annoyed because he had told Donghyuck the name of the place almost ten times before already. "Oh wait," Donghyuck closed his eyes to think, remembering just the first few sounds of the words before giving up and saying, "Some garden place."

Mark lifted his eyebrow and then shot the manager a look. He wasn't against going to see flowers and other nature related things but, was it really just that? They couldn't possibly spend 5 hours at a garden.

"And then we'll go eat," Their manager added and shook his head when Donghyuck flashed a cheeky smile.

The trip to the arboretum wasn't bad, or at least that's what Donghyuck prefers to say. He had started playing music on the way there, his weak attempt to distract Mark so that they wouldn't need to converse, but of course, Mark had other plans. He spoke in English and kept asking Donghyuck questions. Mark clinged onto Donghyuck's side at one point and it was driving the younger mad. All those months ago, Mark would shy away from skinship, yet here he was doing it himself. He really had to stop sending mixed signals.

Mark tried hard to made Donghyuck speak. He really did, the constant chatter, the asking of questions, the glances. It was all too much, in all honesty. Donghyuck amazingly managed to stay quiet for most of the trip, since he didn't exactly know how to phrase his words in another language and chose to let Mark do all the work. Obviously the older noticed this and but there wasn't much that he could do.

"Let's get some food," Mark said, grabbing Donghyuck's arm and tugged him towards the exit. Donghyuck's eyes wandered down Mark's arm and got fixated on their intertwined fingers. He smiled shyly and clutched onto Mark's hand more tightly. It wasn't everyday that Mark chose to touch him.

As Mark had said previously, he hated skinship. He hated it when anyone would come close to him and invade his personal space. It just felt uncomfortable. However, Mark would happily initiate it with others, because that's the only time he felt comfortable doing it, and Donghyuck understood. What he didn't get was why Mark would never initiate anything with him. Was he that repulsive?,

"Did you bring your wallet?" Mark asked, narrowing his eyes at Donghyuck and then looked down to pull out his own. Donghyuck rolled his eyes and let out a scoff, immediately reaching down into his pocket and threw his wallet onto the table. Mark paused for a second and burst into laughter, clapping his hands like he always did. "Okay, okay. Well done."

Mark placed his wallet beside him and then turned to the staff, asking them about when they could order. Donghyuck glanced at the camera, and then at Mark, who had started to sing. He slyly slid his hand to the left and 'accidentally' grabbed Mark's wallet. He brought it up to his face and scanned the image. It was of Mark as a baby. He was holding onto a bat and was smiling like a fool at the camera. Donghyuck felt his cheeks warm up as he smiled at the picture. Mark always looked cute. 

"Ah!" Mark shrieked as he snatched the wallet from him and his eyes widened. It wasn't an embarrassing picture, just one he hadn't shown anyone and didn't want to show anyone. "Privacy!"

Mark turned to the camera and then pointed at Donghyuck with his pinky, shaking his head as he sat back in his seat. The smile on his face widened as Donghyuck leaned over to check the picture again, despite already getting a clear view of it earlier. Even if it was just for the camera, Donghyuck was treating him normally, and he was glad. He still needed to find out what was wrong, but for the moment he just wanted to enjoy the others presence.

"One second," Donghyuck put his hand up towards Mark as they got up to leave the restaurant. Mark nodded and then turned to the camera, starting to speak about how much he enjoyed visiting the arboretum. When he realised he was making no sense and was practically rambling, he held up two fingers and made a scissors sign, one that he knew the editors would immediately understand the meaning of. 

Mark looked around the area and then realised that Donghyuck was standing near the benches, posing with his arms up. A grin broke out on his face and he hurried to join the younger. 

Why was he so happy?

Because he got to spend the whole day with Donghyuck.

"How was the day out?" Taeyong asked as soon as Donghyuck and Mark returned. Mark nodded and spurted some nonsense before rushing to his room to get changed. Donghyuck posted the last of the few pictures he took with Mark and sat down beside Johnny and Taeyong.

"It was good," He replied, staring at the door through which Mark had gone into. It was nice talking to Mark again, messing around with him, and randomly breaking into a song. But Mark still didn't bring up the issue at hand. The fact that Donghyuck was ignoring him. It was as if Mark didn't even realise there was a problem, but then again that wasn't true since he had already asked him once before with zero effort. So then maybe Mark just didn't care about the problem between them. Maybe he thought it was nothing and was blowing it off.  

"Did Mark...?" Johnny trailed off and shuffled closer to Donghyuck, wrapping an arm around him. As he did that, he awkwardly pat his arm and Donghyuck felt his stomach drop. (Of course they would act like this towards him, they don't like hugs but now they're forced to give them). 

"No," Donghyuck answered and sighed with a pout. "He's been avoiding the whole situation, I doubt he even wants to fix things."

Taeyong and Johnny exchanged looks and then put their hands over Donghyuck's knee.

"I'm sure he wants to fix it but just... you know, doesn't know what to say?" Taeyong said, bringing his other hand to Donghyuck's shoulder, hoping that it could comfort the younger but instead caused him to feel even worse. They were really trying their best to force skinship with him now. "But I suggest you forget about that right now."

"Yeah," Johnny chimed, letting a smile take over his face. "Listen, don't get us wrong but, the fans love your dynamics with Mark. You guys are like two cute children who bicker all the time but also love each other. So just...forget about the whole trying to make Mark understand. I know it's important for you however, we're on tour. We need to make sure this rolls on well. Can this wait until the tour ends?"

Donghyuck slowly nodded and lowered his gaze. He had pretend for long enough that he was alright with the constant rejection from all the members, but now he had to continue despite nearly the whole group knowing. Donghyuck was alright with them pushing him away —of course he was, not everyone is a fan of skinship— but when they pushed him away just to pull someone else close, that's what hurt him. Was it really that hard to just give him a short hug and at least conceal the awkwardness that it held?

The door to the room opened and Mark wobbled in, rubbing his eyes gently and dropped down onto the sofa. Donghyuck ignored the way his face lit up at the sight of Mark in an oversized sweater and large sweatpants and tried to look away from him. That was, until Mark forced Doyoung to open his arms and slid into them, casually hugging Doyoung as if it meant nothing. Donghyuck's already bad mood got worse and the guilt of feeling jealous towards his best friends stabbed him in his chest. He had no right to feel jealous or betrayed. Doyoung and Mark didn't owe him anything.

The feeling of guilt and jealousy, he had to get rid of them quickly.